Next Stop New Zealand

TINO GEDDES ON CARIBBEAN SPORTS

The West Indies cricket teams leave Tuesday for New Zealand for three-day Test and five-match One-Day International series.

The squads are led by Guyanese left-handed batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who has fellow Guyanese Ramnaresh Sarwan as his deputy.

The West Indies Cricket Board has rescheduled the semifinals and final of the regional four-day Carib Beer Challenge series to accommodate the top players who would otherwise miss out on the regional showpiece.

The semifinals will be April 7-10 and the five-day final April 14-18. ...

Last year's double champion for the Carib Beer Cup and Carib Beer Challenge, Jamaica, which had a disastrous season, is without a coach.

Former Jamaica and West Indies representative Robert Haynes resigned as national coach when Jamaica was knocked out of both contests with a round remaining.

Haynes did not elaborate on his decision but had expressed dissatisfaction with the attitude and performance of the players.

Former Jamaica captain and West Indies batsman Robert Samuels, now an analyst, said captain Wavell Hinds was not the right man to replace Haynes.

Hinds, who is being looked at as a future West Indies Test captain, took over the leadership of the Jamaica team after stand-in captain Tamar Lambert maintained his record of never being outdone by any team he has played against in regional competition.

Last year Lambert led the Jamaica team to five consecutive outright wins before Hinds returned and assumed the captaincy.

At that time Jamaica struggled, losing for the first time, but doing enough to take the double.

This year Lambert again opened the season for the first two matches and secured first-innings lead for Jamaica, before Hinds returned from tour to take over the captaincy.

Jamaica did not earn a point from the remaining three matches.

SOCCER

Jamaica international Ricardo "Bibi" Gardener provided the corner kick that dumped Arsenal from the English FA Cup.

Bibi's spot-on corner kick found the head of Greek international Stelios Giannakopous to give Bolton a victory and shatter the hopes of Arsenal, which had also been beaten in the semifinal of the League Cup the previous week. ...

Jamaica will get another chance to qualify for a World Cup after being invited to play for a FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup spot in Brazil March 5-12.

Jamaica will play alongside Brazil, the United States, Mexico and the Cayman Islands to qualify for the second edition of the Beach World Cup tournament.

A squad will be named this week.

Track

Asafa Powell, world-record holder for the 100 meters, is the latest local sports star to receive a land grant from the Jamaican government.

Jamaica's outgoing Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson, said after talks with the athlete that steps would be taken to assist Powell with construction on the land.

Powell is being given similar treatment to that given the Reggae Boyz who qualified for the 1988 World Cup in France.

Powell is one of three Jamaicans in the top 10 of the IAAF world rankings for 100 meters.

He is at No. 4. The other Jamaicans are Dwight Thomas at No. 2 and Michael Frater at No. 10.